JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

Juvenile Delinquency is participation in illegal crimes by minors. Juvenile Delinquency is one of

the most discussed problems in India. In the current scenario, there is an increase in crimes
committed by juveniles and there was a lot of hue and cry when one of juveniles in the horrific
gruesome rape case was released after his completion of the prescribed punishment. In the Indian
context, offences committed by juveniles can be attributed to various factors such as background
of the family, socio-economic status of the family, environment etc. The Rape which took place
on 16th December 2012 and the release of juvenile delinquent forced the legislature to reduce the
age of juvenile delinquents from 18 to 16. Some of the previous legislations relating to juvenile
delinquents are:

The Apprentices Act,1850

The Reformatory School Act,1876
Children Act,1960
Juvenile Justice Act,1986
The Recommendations of the Indian Jails Committee,1919-20

There is a 30% rise in crimes by juveniles in the period of 2012-2014. According to National
Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the percentage of juvenile crimes as a proportion of total
crimes has increased from 1% to 1.2% from 2003 to 2013. 70% of the juvenile accused of
crimes is in the age group of 16-18.

Justice Verma Committee observed that We felt that if a child less than 18 years is subjected
to a normal jail there remains no chance of rehabilitation, they often turn into hardened
criminals, repeat offenders. Moreover, the childs brain at that age is still in its formative stage,
they are not mature yet to understand the full the full implication of their action.

GLOBAL PICTURE:

According to Asian Centre for Human Rights, in a 2013 report titled Indias Hell Homes has
extensively documented the incident of child sexual assault in juvenile justice homes.

In England and Wales, for several offences, children above the age of 10 are to be held to
be criminally liable.
In Australia, the prescribed age is 14-18 years for children to be responsible for their
actions under criminal law.
In the United States, many states have the age of 12 years for holding children
responsible for criminal acts.
In New York and Texas, the age is 17 years.
In Bangladesh, it is 16 years and in Denmark, it is 15 years.
 The Supreme Court while hearing a case related to juvenile crime observed that the 2000 Act
needs to be reviewed due to increasing heinous offences by juveniles.

UN CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD, 1989

The UN Convention on child Rights of the child, 1989 draws attention to four sets of
civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights of every child. These are:
(1) Right to Survival: These rights include the right to life, the highest attainable
standard of living. It also includes the right to a name and nationality
(2) Right to Protection: These rights includes freedom from all form of exploitation,
abuse, inhuman or degrading treatment, and neglect including the right to special
protection in situations of emergency and armed conflicts.
(3) Right to Development: These rights include the right to education, support for
early childhood development and care, social security and the rights to leisure,
recreation and cultural activities.
(4) Right to Participation: These rights include respect for the views of the child,
freedom of expression, access to appropriate information and freedom of thought,
conscience and religion.

The UNRC states that signatory countries should treat every child under the age of years in the
same manner and not try them as adults.

CONCLUSION:

There is an increase in juvenile delinquency and the new legislation Juvenile Justice (Care and
Protection of Children) Act, 2000 is waiting for Presidential Assent. The Act is intended to treat
children of 16 to 18 years as adults and try them for the offences committed by them as adults.

Also, the statistics show that 56% of the juveniles accused of crimes comes from families whose
annual income does not exceed 25000.1 in 8 juvenile criminal is an orphan. Just 1.2% of all
crimes are committed by juveniles. 6% of all rape accused are juveniles.87% of all juvenile
criminals never went to High school.

In India, the Criminal Justice system is over legislated but under enforced and there is a need to
design, make and implement these laws through institutional framework.